Internship Location: Madison
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Policy Areas:
I had the incredible opportunity of interning at Combat Blindness International, a non profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin that provides eye care to people in Dane County and 15 other countries. Combat Blindness International’s mission is to eliminate preventable blindness worldwide by providing sustainable, equitable solutions for sight through partnerships and innovation. The organization has provided eye screenings for more than 2.7 million men, women, and children and support for over 385,000 free cataract surgeries. I worked as Operations Intern, running day-to-day operations of Combat Blindness International, including general administration, donation processing, fundraising events, project management, and financial reporting. I mainly helped with the event planning of World Sight Day, the organization’s biggest fundraiser. One skill that I learned was maintaining a donor management database (CRM) and generating reports. One of the most valuable lessons that I learned throughout this process is the importance of creativity and problem solving. Due to the pandemic, the Combat Blindness International team innovated new efficient solutions for eye screenings in order to reach as many people as possible. I had a great experience working with Combat Blindness International, learning about non-profit operations and health policy as a whole.